Columns

Posts Live from Van Cliburn International Piano Competition: Getting Underway

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Posts Live from Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
By ANN MCLAUGHLIN
 
GETTING UNDERWAY
 
Every four years, Fort Worth throws a big party called the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. They do it Texas-style. The center of town is awash in the Cliburn logo. I’ve seen it on banners, t-shirts, cupcakes, pashmina shawls, notepads, and mugs.
 
The polished ladies of the Fort Worth Junior League are everywhere transporting official guests from the airport, welcoming them to the Bass Concert Hall and making sure that everyone gets a big Texas smile.
 
Fort
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Yang: Let’s Have More Meat Before Worrying About Branding, Shall We?

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Let’s Have More Meat Before Worrying About Branding, Shall We?
By ELENA YANG

I have a natural aversion to branding, for its original meaning as well as a marketing ploy.

I get highly suspicious whenever I hear the term being bandied about. I will never give up the ideal that one should always develop and recognize the substance first before using marketing strategies as shortcuts to shore up product position, name recognition, or making profits. 

If an entity, an organization, a town, or a circus, “thinks” it has a good product but is not sure how to present it or position it, shouldn’t the entity Read More

Solo Traveler: Pueblo Magico Comitán de Domíngues

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Solo Traveler
Column by SHERRY HARDAGE

Pueblo Magico Comitán de Domíngues

The Mexican Tourism Board has given the designation Pueblo Magico to a number of cities around the country.

It is an honor indicating a place of exceptional beauty, historical significance, and tourist opportunities that provide a “magical” experience.

Most of them are colonial cities, built during the first 150 years of Spanish occupation. Some, like San Cristóbal de las Casas and Comitán de Domíngues in Chiapas, were founded a mere 50 years after Cortes invaded Mexico.

Comitán is lower in altitude than Read More

The Pain Free Athlete: Is Surgery the Answer for Your Musculoskeletal Pain?

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Jessica Kisiel

The Pain Free Athlete
Column by JESSICA KISIEL
 
 Is Surgery the Answer for Your Musculoskeletal Pain?

When we hurt we often assume the worst. We become afraid and tentative with our bodies, telling ourselves that this much pain indicates major damage and will require a significant intervention to heal.

This is especially true with new pain that doesn’t seem to have a cause. The possibility of surgery quickly comes to mind and we panic, seeking immediate relief and answers from our medical provider.

Sometimes, there is a clear cause for the pain and treatment

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Posts Live from Van Cliburn International Piano Competition: Introduction

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Posts Live from Van Cliburn International Piano Competition
By ANN McLaughlin
 
Introduction

On a spring day in 1958, a gangling young man perched atop the back seat of an open Chrysler Imperial as it rolled down 5th Avenue in New York.  Confetti and ticker tape swirled down. People packed the sidewalks and strained to catch a glimpse of him. He was not a visiting head of state, or a military hero, or a sports luminary. He was an American, he was a pianist and he had just won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow.

The Tchaikovsky Competition was conceived as a demonstration Read More

Column: How Los Alamos and Little New Mexico Can Help Feed the World

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By WILLIAM T. SELLERS
Venuture Coach and Vice-President of Los Alamos Enterpreneurs Network

How Los Alamos and New Mexico Can Help Feed the World

On March 12, 2012, global population officially crossed the 7 billion mark. Barring some cataclysm, by 2050, that number will easily exceed 10 billion.

For those of us who’ve personally visited the wretched places of our planet, this is a very real, daunting epiphany. Right now a unique confluence of changing local geologic conditions and new technology are aligning themselves – which under the purview of New Mexico’s scientific and engineering Read More

Column: Is Your Sunscreen Safe?

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Is Your Sunscreen Safe?
Column by LISA BAKOSI

I can hardly wait for the pools to open and that means it’s officially sunscreen season.

We use sunscreen to protect us from the sun but with questionable ingredients and conflicting reports about if they really work, who in the heck knows what to buy.

As a confused consumer, I set out on the hunt to figure it out and discovered the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an unbiased citizen-funded advocacy and research firm. They just released their 7th annual Sunscreen Report. My hope is that this summary of their findings will leave you empowered to buy Read More

Letter to the Editor: Greater Concern With Well Project

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By REID PRIEDHORSKY
Los Alamos

Most of the discussion of the county’s proposed well project has focused on wellhead impacts. However, I believe there is a greater concern: potential impact to the springs in White Rock Canyon.

This project is designed to extract ground water before it becomes surface water flowing into the Rio Grande. Ground water becomes surface water by emerging through springs. Therefore, by definition, some springs somewhere must be affected; the only question is which ones and how much. The county’s explanation that “experts with knowledge of the Read More

Column: Valles Caldera Faces Troubled Future

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Column by TOM RIBE
Santa Fe

The beautiful Valles Caldera National Preserve atop the Jemez Mountains faces a troubled future if Congress doesn’t act soon.

 
This vast volcanic wild and beautiful place is often cited by visitors as “national park quality.” The legislation that created the Preserve in 2000 expires in 2020 and if congress does nothing, the Preserve will cease to exist as a protected place and will become general multiple use Forest Service land with no staff and virtually no protection of any kind.

How could this happen? When New Mexicans pressed Congress to buy the old Baca Ranch

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Kendall: Driving Steve Stoddard

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U.S. troops advance toward Fontainebleau en route to Paris. (National Archives)

Column by GREG KENDALL
Los Alamos Daily Post

Steve Stoddard and I were founding board members of the Los Amigos de Valles Caldera (Friends of the Valles Caldera National Preserve organization.)  

Steve was in an electric wheelchair at the time and I offered to drive his specially outfitted van to the Amigos board meetings in Santa Fe each month. During these drives, Steve would tell me wonderful stories about his time in Los Alamos and about his military experiences.  

I loved his stories about his Read More